Germany seeks to attract 400,000 qualified economic immigrants each year

Germany’s new coalition government aims to attract 400,000 qualified economic immigrants, in a move to meet its demographic and economic’s needs.

This move came after Germany has seen a demographic imbalance and labor shortages in key sectors, which can delay the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the country’s socio-economic sectors.

“The shortage of skilled workers has become so serious by now that it is dramatically slowing down our economy,” Christian Duerr, parliamentary leader of the co-governing Free Democrats (FDP), told business magazine WirtschaftsWoche, in a statement.

“We can only get the problem of an aging workforce under control with a modern immigration policy… We have to reach the mark of 400,000 skilled workers from abroad as quickly as possible,” Duerr added.

Robert Habeck, a leader of the Greens party said in a news conference, “We have 300,000 job openings today and expect that to climb to a million and more,” he said, adding, “If we don’t close that gap, we will have real productivity problems.”

The employer-friendly German Economic Institute estimates that the labor force will shrink by more than 300,000 people this year as there are more older workers retiring than younger ones entering the labor market, according to Reuters.